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Mundy’s Landing is a quaint small town where unsolved murders committed a century ago mean big business. Hair neatly braided, hands serenely clasped, eyes closed, three young woman appeared to be sound asleep. But beneath the covers, the identical white nightgowns were spattered with blood. At daybreak, three horrified families awoke to discover a corpse in the guest rooms of their upscale homes. The identities of the killer and his/her victims was never discovered. The Sleeping Beauty Murders terrified residents and inspired the Historical Society’s annual “Mundypalooza.” Tourists descend upon Mundy’s Landing and congregate outside the three homes as they search for clues. And in commemoration of the hundredth anniversary of the crimes, a hefty reward is being offered for solving the case.

Annabelle Bingham grew up in Mundy’s Landing, so is well aware of the notoreity attached to the Murder Houses, as well as the madness that grips the little town during Mundypalooza. Despite her misgivings and concern about twelve-year-old Oliver’s anxiety disorder, she and her husband, Trib, purchase the Murder House at 46 Bridge Street. The price is right, even though the house needs significant improvements, and permits them to enter a housing market from which they would otherwise be financially barred. But shortly after they rake up residence in the long-dormant house, Annabelle finds she can’t shake the feeling that her family is being watched — and not just by the news crews and amateur sleuths.

Meanwhile, three young women have disappeared, victims of a copycat murderer who has stumbled onto the shocking motive for the crimes and is planning to reenact the murders precisely on the anniversaries of the original crimes, one of which occurred in Annabelle’s new home.

Review:

Author Wendy Corsi StaubIn Blue Moon, author Wendy Corsi Staub employs three voices. There is a present-day third person narrative focused primarily upon Annabelle’s thoughts, feelings, and experiences which alternates with excerpts from the 1916 Sleeping Beauty Killer’s diary (with entries dating back to 1893) and the contemporary copycat killer’s diary, “Holmes’s Case Notes,” the killer’s narcissistic nod to Sherlock. Staub says her personal writing process is “a sort of total immersion method. I feel compelled to live in my fictional setting and inhabit my characters’ minds, bodies, lives. When I achieve that rhythm, I don’t have to stop and think about what someone might say or how they would act at any given plot point. I already know. I know what they would do, I know the voice of the book the way I know my own. It just feels organic.” Readers may find the multiple narratives a bit jarring and confusing at first, the result is worth the initial struggle — the particularized narratives lend depth and context to the story.

At the outset, some suspension of disbelief or, perhaps more accurately, casting aside of cynicism is required in order to accept that Annabelle and Trib would subject their own child, who already suffers from a debilitating anxiety disorder, to the challenges associated with living in a house with such notoriety, especially given that tourists descend upon the little town annually. They visit the museum, tour the town, and, most notably, gather outside the three houses, gawking, taking photographs, and observing the current residents’ comings and goings. Annabelle’s explanations — one being that their family finances will not otherwise facilitate home ownership — strain credulity. They undertake various renovations, primarily a major project restoring and updating the home’s indoor swimming pool. And it’s hard to believe that a child psychiatrist would endorse such a move on the ground that “they wouldn’t be doing Oliver any favors by removing challenges from his life” because he “needs to learn to cope with adversity.”

But Staub can be forgiven those plot contrivances because they are effective and Blue Moon quickly reveals itself to be a unique, intricately crafted mystery that keeps readers guessing about both the identities and motives of two murderers separated by a century until the very end. Ultimately, Annabelle proves to be a sympathetic, likable character who is devoted to and wants the best for her family, along with a chance to reclaim a bit of her own identity. She left a successful career as swimming coach at a nearby college in order to care for Oliver full-time after her absences from home for team competitions proved too much for the boy.

Staub includes a cast of supporting characters — current and past — that are empathetic and intriguing, none more so than Ora Abrams, the curator of the local museum run by the Mundy’s Landing Historical Society. Ora’s given name is Aurora — yes, for the princess in Charles Perrault’s original Sleeping Beauty fairy tale. Ora is devoted to maintaining and expanding the collection of memorabilia associated with the murders, and issued the challenge that draws so many visitors to Mundy’s Landing: Can You Solve the Sleeping Beauty Murders? (That provocation fuels “Holmes” to prove he has solved the mystery by replicating the three murders in precise detail.) Ora, grandniece of the original curator, inherited more than just her post from Great Aunt Etta. She also inherited Etta’s private collection of memorabilia. Now in her 80’s, Ora lives alone in the expansive attic of the museum she tends. She has obsessively spurred world-wide interest in the case, and in anticipation of the anniversary, she has circulated maps to the Sleeping Beauty Houses and offered an exceptionally large reward to anyone who can solve the crime. There is even a gala planned as the anniversary coincides with the founding of Mundy’s Landing 350 years earlier. During the gala, at which Trib will be speaking, a time capsule will be opened and the contents revealed. Will the audience be stunned and shocked by what has been hidden for the past one hundred years? Has someone already solved the crime? And why are both Ora and the copycat killer so fascinated by the crime that they have devoted their lives to it?

As the narratives alternate, the anniversary approaches, and the pace of Blue Moon accelerates. Various characters present as plausible suspects, but are rejected. The lives of three young women, secreted away in an abandoned amusement park, hang in the balance. Due to their resemblance to the original victims, Holmes has targeted them in his quest to recreate the crime. Annabelle has been transformed into a sleuth after discovering a mysterious tribute engraved on a statue erected by the indoor pool. She is compelled to discover Who “Z.D.P.” was and whether he/she is somehow connected to the murders.

The full, shocking story of the Sleeping Beauty Killers is revealed via action-packed, nail-biting final chapters that effectively incorporate the three narratives. Blue Moon’s complex plot, complete with shocking developments, unique historical setting, and detailed narrative perspectives, make it entertaining and compelling. It is actually the second volume of the Mundy’s Landing series, the first being Blood Red, but each book stands on its own. If you read Blue Moon in the evening, you will likely be up past your regularly scheduled bed time, as I was. I simply couldn’t put it down until I solved the Sleeping Beauty Murders.

Excerpt from Blue Moon

Prologue

Sunday, October 25, 2015Mundy’s Landing, New York

Here we are,” the Realtor, Lynda Carlotta, announces as she slows the car in front of 46 Bridge Street. “It really is magnificent, isn’t it?”

The Second Empire Victorian presides over neighboring stucco bungalows and pastel Queen Anne cottages with the aplomb of a grand dame crashing a coffee klatch. There’s a full third story tucked behind the scalloped slate shingles, topped by a black iron grillwork crown. A square cupola rises to a lofty crest against the gloomy Sunday morning sky. Twin cornices perch atop its paired windows like the meticulously arched, perpetually raised eyebrows of a proper aristocratic lady.

Fittingly, the house—rather, the events that transpired within its plaster walls—raised many an eyebrow a hundred years ago.

Annabelle Bingham grew up right around the corner, but she stares from the leather passenger’s seat as if seeing the house for the first time. She’d never imagined that she might actually live beneath that mansard roof, in the shadow of the century-old unsolved crimes that unfolded there.

For the past few days, she and her husband, Trib, have taken turns talking each other into—and out of—coming to see this place. They’re running out of options.

Real estate values have soared in this picturesque village, perched on the eastern bank of the Hudson River midway between New York City and Albany. The Binghams’ income has done quite the opposite. The only homes in their price range are small, undesirable fixer-uppers off the highway. They visited seven such properties yesterday and another this morning, a forlorn little seventies ranch that smelled of must and mothballs. Eau d’old man, according to Trib.

“Magnificent isn’t exactly the word that springs to mind when I look at this house,” he tells Lynda from the backseat.

She smiles at him in the rearview mirror. “Well, I’m not the professional wordsmith you are. I’m sure you can come up with a more creative adjective.”

Annabelle can. She’s been trying to keep it out of her head, but everything—even the tolling steeple bells from nearby Holy Angels Church—is a grim reminder.

“Monolithic,” pronounces the backseat wordsmith. “That’s one way to describe it.”

Murder House, Annabelle thinks. That’s another.

“There’s certainly plenty of room for a large family,” Lynda points out cheerily.

Optimism might be her strong suit, but tact is not. Doesn’t she realize there are plenty of families that don’t care to grow larger? And there are many that, for one heartbreaking reason or another, couldn’t expand even if they wanted to; and still others, like the Binghams, whose numbers are sadly dwindling.

Annabelle was an only child, as is their son, Oliver. Trib lost his older brother in a tragic accident when they were kids. Until a few months ago, Trib’s father, the last of their four parents to pass away, had been a vital part of their lives. He’d left them the small inheritance they plan to use as a down payment on a home of their own—a bittersweet prospect for all of them.

“I just want Grandpa Charlie back,” Oliver said tearfully last night. “I’d rather have him than a new house.”

“We all would, sweetheart. But you know he can’t come back, and wouldn’t it be nice to have a nice big bedroom and live on a street with sidewalks and other kids?”

“No,” Oliver said, predictably. “I like it here.”

They’re living in what had once been the gardener’s cottage on a grand Hudson River estate out on Battlefield Road. The grounds are lovely but isolated, and they’ve long since outgrown the tiny rental space.

Still . . . are they really prepared to go from dollhouse to mansion?

“There are fourteen rooms,” Lynda waxes on, “including the third-floor ballroom, observatory, and servants’ quarters. Over thirty-five hundred square feet of living space—although I have to check the listing sheet, so don’t quote me on it.”

That, Annabelle has noticed, is one of her favorite catchphrases. Don’t quote me on it.

“Is she saying it because you’re a reporter?” she’d asked Trib after their first outing with Lynda. “Does she think you’re working on an article that’s going to blow the lid off . . . I don’t know, sump pump function?”

He laughed. “That’s headline fodder if I ever heard it.”

Lynda starts to pull the Lexus into the rutted driveway. After a few bumps, she thinks better of it and backs out onto the street. “Let’s start out front so that we can get the full curb appeal, shall we?”

They shall.

“Would you mind handing me that file folder on the floor back there, Charles?” Lynda asks Trib, whose lanky form is folded into the seat behind her.

He’d been born Charles Bingham IV, but as one of several Charlies in kindergarten, was rechristened courtesy of his family’s longtime ownership of the Mundy’s Landing

Tribune. The childhood nickname stuck with him and proved prophetic: he took over as editor and publisher after his dad retired a decade ago.

But Lynda wouldn’t know that. She’s relatively new in town, having arrived sometime in the last decade. Nor would she remember the era when the grand homes in The Heights had fallen into shabby disrepair and shuttered nineteenth-century storefronts lined the Common. She’d missed the dawning renaissance as they reopened, one by one, to form the bustling business district that exists today.

“Let’s see . . . I was wrong,” she says, consulting the file Trib passes to the front seat. “The house is only thirty-three hundred square feet.”

Can we quote you on it? Annabelle wants to ask.

“I can’t imagine what it cost to heat this place last winter,” Trib comments, “with all those below-zero days we had.”

“You’ll see here that there’s a fairly new furnace.” Lynda hands them each a sheet of paper. “Much more energy efficient than you’ll find in most old houses in the neighborhood.”

Annabelle holds the paper at arm’s length—courtesy of advancing farsightedness—and looks over the list of specs. The “new” furnace was installed about fifteen years ago, around the turn of this century. The wiring and plumbing most likely date to the turn of the last one.

“Oh, and did I mention that this is the only privately owned indoor pool in town.”

She did, several times. Some potential buyers might view that as a burden, but Lynda is well aware that it’s a luxury for Annabelle, an avid swimmer.

Still, the house lacks plenty of key items on her wish list. There’s a ramshackle detached garage instead of the two-car garage she and Trib covet. There is no master suite. The lot is undersized, like many in this historic neighborhood.

“You’re never going to find exactly what you want,” Lynda has been reminding her and Trib from day one. “You have to compromise.”

They want a home that’s not too big, not too small, not too old, not too new, not too expensive, not a rock-bottom fixer-upper . . .

Goldilocks syndrome—another of Lynda’s catchphrases.

This house may be too old and too big, but it isn’t too expensive despite being located in The Heights, a sloping tree-lined enclave adjacent to the Village Common.

Its owner, Augusta Purcell, died over a year ago, reportedly in the same room where she’d been born back in 1910. Her sole heir, her nephew Lester, could have sold it to the historical society for well above market value. But he refused to entertain a long-standing preemptive offer from the curator, Ora Abrams.

“I’m not going to cash in on a tragedy like everyone else around here,” he grumbled, adamantly opposed to having his ancestral home exploited for its role in the notorious, unsolved Sleeping Beauty case.

From late June through mid July of 1916, a series of grisly crimes unfurled in the relentless glare of both a brutal heat wave and the Sestercentennial Celebration for the village, founded in 1666.

Forty-six Bridge Street was the second home to gain notoriety as a crime scene. The first was a gambrel-roofed fieldstone Dutch manor house just around the corner at 65 Prospect Street; the third, a granite Beaux Arts mansion at 19 Schuyler Place.

No actual homicide took place inside any of the three so-called Murder Houses. But what had happened was profoundly disturbing. Several days and several blocks apart, three local families awakened to find the corpse of a young female stranger tucked into a spare bed under their roof.

The bodies were all posed exactly the same way: lying on their backs beneath coverlets that were neatly folded back beneath their arms. Their hands were peacefully clasped on top of the folded part of the covers. Their long hair—they all had long hair—was braided and arranged just so upon the pillows.

All the girls’ throats had been neatly slit ear to ear. Beneath each pillow was a note penned on plain stationery in block lettering: Sleep safe till tomorrow. The line was taken from a William Carlos Williams poem published three years earlier.

The victims hadn’t died where they lay, nor in the immediate vicinity. They’d been stealthily transported by someone who was never caught; someone who was never identified and whose motive remains utterly inexplicable to this day.

Ghastly death portraits were printed in newspapers across the country in the futile hope that someone might recognize a sister, a daughter, a niece. In the end, their unidentified remains were buried in the graveyard behind Holy Angels Church.

Is Annabelle really willing to move into a Murder House?

A year ago, she’d have said no way. This morning, when she and Trib and Oliver were crashing into porcelain fixtures and one another in their tiny bathroom, she’d have said yes, absolutely.

Now, staring up at the lofty bracketed eaves, ornately carved balustrades, and curve-topped couplets of tall, narrow windows, all framed against a blood red foliage canopy of an oppressive sky . . .

I don’t know. I just don’t know.

“Since you both grew up here, I don’t have to tell you about how wonderful this neighborhood is,” Lynda says as the three of them step out of the car and approach the tall black iron fence that mirrors the mansard crest.

A brisk wind stirs overhead boughs. They creak and groan, as does the gate when Lynda pushes it open. The sound is straight out of a horror movie. A chill slips down Annabelle’s spine, and she shoves her hands deep into the pockets of her corduroy barn coat.

The brick walkway between the gate and the house is strewn with damp fallen leaves. For all she knows, someone raked just yesterday. It is that time of year, and an overnight storm brought down a fresh barrage of past-peak foliage.

Yet the grounds exude the same forlorn, abandoned atmosphere as the house itself. It’s the only one on the block that lacks pumpkins on the porch steps and political signs posted in the yard.

Election Day looms, with a heated mayoral race that reflects the pervasive insider versus outsider mentality. Most residents of The Heights back the incumbent, John Elsworth Ransom, whose roots extend to the first settlers of Mundy’s Landing. Support for his opponent, a real estate developer named Dean Cochran, is stronger on the other side of town, particularly in Mundy Estates, the upscale townhouse complex he built and now calls home.

A Ransom for Mayor poster isn’t all that’s conspicuously missing from the leaf-blanketed yard. There’s no For Sale sign, either.

Trib asks Lynda if she’s sure it’s on the market.

“Oh, it is. But Lester prefers to avoid actively soliciting the ‘ghouls’—not the Halloween kind, if you know what I mean.”

They do. Plenty of locals use that word to describe the tourists who visit every summer in an effort to solve the cold case. The event—colloquially dubbed Mundypalooza—has taken place every year since 1991. That’s when, in conjunction with the seventy-fifth anniversary of the cold case, the historical society first extended a public invitation: Can You Solve the Sleeping Beauty Murders?

So far, no one has—but every summer, more and more people descend to try their hand at it. The historical society sponsors daily speakers, panel discussions, and workshops. Even Trib conducts an annual seminar about the sensational press coverage the case received in 1916.

He turns to Annabelle. “That’s something we’d have to deal with if we bought this place.”

“Just in the summer, though,” Lynda cuts in quickly, “and even then, it’s not a big deal.”

“This house will be crawling with people and press,” Annabelle points out.

After all, a Murder House isn’t just branded by century-old stigma; it bears the brunt of the yearly gawker invasion. No local resident escapes unscathed, but those who live at 46 Bridge Street, 65 Prospect Street, and 19 Schuyler Place are inundated.

“Let’s just walk through before you rule it out,” Lynda urges. “A comparable house at any other address in this neighborhood would sell for at least six figures more. I’d hate to have someone snatch this out from under you.”

The odds of that happening are slim to none. Lester, who insists on pre-approving every showing, requests that prospective buyers already live locally. Not many people fit the bill, but Annabelle and Trib passed muster and they’re here. They might as well look, even though Annabelle is sure she doesn’t want to live here after all. She’d never get past what happened here during the summer of 1916, let alone what will happen every summer forever after, thanks to Mundypalooza.

They step through the massive double doors into the dim, chilly entrance hall. So far, so not good.

Before Annabelle can announce that she’s changed her mind, Lynda presses an antique mother-of-pearl button on the wall. “There, that’s better, isn’t it?”

They find themselves bathed in the glow of an elegant fixture suspended from a plaster medallion high overhead. Surprisingly, it is better.

There’s a massive mirror on the wall opposite the door. In it, Annabelle sees their reflection: Lynda, a full head shorter even in heels, bookended by herself and Trib, who could pass for siblings. They’re similarly tall and lean, with almost the same shade of dark brown hair and light brown eyes—both attractive, if not in a head-turning way.

Their eyes meet in the mirror, and he gives her a slight nod, as if to say, Yes, let’s keep going.

“Just look at that mosaic tile floor!” Lynda exclaims. “And the moldings on those archways! And the woodwork on the grand staircase! We haven’t seen anything like this in any of the houses we’ve looked at, have we?”

They agree that they haven’t, and of course wouldn’t expect to in their price point.

Annabelle can picture twelve-year-old Oliver walking through those big doors after school, dropping his backpack on the built-in seat above the cast-iron radiator with a Mom? I’m home. As she runs her fingertips over the carved newel post, she envisions him sliding down the banister curving above.

The long-dormant old house stirs to life as they move through it. One by one, doors creak open. Spaces beyond brighten courtesy of wall switches that aren’t dime-a-dozen rectangular plastic levers. These are period contraptions with buttons or brass toggles or pull-pendants dangling from thirteen-foot ceilings. Lynda presses, turns, pulls them all, chasing shadows from the rooms.

My special guest today, Joan Steinau Lester, recently published her second novel, Mama’s Child. She describes writing as “totally involving, pleasurable, existing only for itself, not the end product. . . . [W]writing is an activity that fully absorbs me. When I finish, I’m flushed with pleasure.”

Mama’s Child traces the journey of an idealistic young white woman who traveled to the American South as a civil rights worker, fell in love with an African American man, and started a family in San Francisco, a liberal city sure to embrace such a couple — except when it didn’t. Tensions tore their marriage apart when their son and daughter were still young. For Ruby, their biracial daughter, her parents’ divorce further destabilized her already challenged sense of self —- “Am I black or white?” she must ask herself. “Where do I belong?” Is she her father’s daughter alone? As the years pass, the chasm between them widens, even as the mother attempts to hold on to the emotional chord that binds them. It isn’t until Ruby becomes a wife and mother that she begins to
develop compassion and understanding for the many ways that her own mother’s love transcended race and questions of identity.

Gloria Loring is no stranger to daytime television fans or music lovers. However, she is also well-known for her work on behalf of the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation, serving as its Celebrity Spokesperson and appearing in public service announcements and commercials, as well as hosting telethons and fundraisers.

In her new book, Coincidence Is God’s Way of Remaining Anonymous: Reflections on Daytime Dramas and Divine Intervention, Gloria reveals that while she was starring in Days of Our Lives, she was also dealing her young son’s diabetes diagnosis and the disintegration of her marriage. The book is her “spiritual exploration of how coincidence helped her make sense of life’s challenges and uncertainties.”

Imagine your dog penning a diary or journal in which he/she not only recounts the developments in his/her life, but also reveals his/her thought processes. Consider how much easier the life of a dog lover would be if the answers to some of life’s most perplexing questions were finally revealed. For instance, if you understood why your dog ate your new sofa, you would be able to prevent such calamities in the future. And if dog owners really understood why their dog wagged his/her tail, the seven basic rules of food, why dogs chase cars or, perhaps most importantly, “The Bed Rules,” life would be infinitely less complicated.

The days are already growing shorter and the neighborhood children have been back in school for a couple of weeks. Hard to believe that summer is rapidly drawing to a close already! Of course, in California’s beautiful San Joaquin Valley, there will still be plenty of sunshine and warm weather. Here in Lodi, the grapes are ripening on the vines and the harvest will begin soon, meaning that fresh, sweet grapes will be plentiful. Most evenings, the breezes from the San Joaquin Delta rustle softly through my oak trees and I delight in relaxing on my patio with a good book and a bowl of fresh, juicy grapes with my beloved Sophie by my side.

Visiting a black sand beach along the Hana Highway, MauiI’ve had a wonderful summer. The highlight was my first trip, with three of my best girlfriends, to Maui! We had so much fun in that topical paradise! We snorkeled, traversed the entire Hana Highway, shopped in the local stores, and, naturally, relaxed on the beach and by the pool with a few good books. I can’t wait to go back for another blissful vacation on the beautiful shore.